Verdell James Brown Bull Jr., also listed in some public sources as Verdell James Brown Bull Sr., is a Native American man and enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who was 51 years old when he went missing from Rapid City, South Dakota. NamUs lists his missing-person case as MP83238, with a date of last contact of May 3, 2021, and his last known location as Rapid City in Pennington County.
He is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall and about 200 pounds, with gray or partially gray hair and brown eyes.
The clearest publicly available account says Verdell was last seen in the Memorial Park area of Rapid City on May 3, 2021. Authorities connected his disappearance to the disappearance of Susan Lacee Fast Eagle, who was also last seen in the same area on the same date. Rapid City police stated during the search for Susan that detectives had developed information indicating she was last seen with Verdell Brown Bull of Kyle, and that both were last seen in Rapid City near Memorial Park. Brown Bull was later reported missing to the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety.
Public case summaries indicate that Verdell and Susan were last seen together and that neither had been heard from afterward. Few details have been released about what happened after they were seen in the Memorial Park area, leaving their families and communities with painful uncertainty. In Susan’s case, public reporting says she had been reported missing by relatives on May 13, 2021, and that her husband said she had felt sick that day before he left to get food; when he returned, she was gone. That account is tied to Susan’s disappearance, but it is significant because investigators later identified Verdell as the person she was last known to have been with.
NamUs identifies the investigating agency for Verdell’s case as the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety, with Criminal Investigator Michael Carlow listed in the agency information. Public sources also list the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety and Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Tribal Police Department as agencies connected to the case. Rapid City police asked anyone with information about either Susan Fast Eagle or Verdell Brown Bull to contact police, and the public notice also provided an anonymous tip option through Tip411.
The South Dakota Missing Persons clearinghouse continues to include a public listing for Verdell Brown Bull, although that listing gives a different missing-since date than NamUs and other case summaries. Because NamUs, The Charley Project, and Rapid City-related public notices identify May 3, 2021, as the date Verdell was last seen or last contacted, that date appears to be the primary date used in the main missing-person case information.
Verdell’s case remains one of deep concern not only because of the lack of public answers, but because it involves two missing Indigenous people who were last seen together and then disappeared from the same area. The available information is limited, and no public source located here confirms that Verdell has been found. His family and community deserve clear answers about what happened to him, and any credible information about his whereabouts or the circumstances of his disappearance could be important to investigators.Last Seen: May 3, 2021
